Former winners to appear at preview events

Anne Marie David 1973 winner

Europe - Two former winners of Europe's Favourite Tv Show are amongst the acts who are appearing at preview parties across Europe. Anne Marie David who won the contest for Luxembourg in 1973 has just been confirmed for the London Preview Party on the 13th April, whilst last year's winner Emmelie de Forest will be a special guest at Eurovision In Concert in Amsterdam on the 5th April.

The entries for the 2014 contest have been formally submitted, and the Semi-Finalists now know their position in the running order, and fans now wait patiently for the rehearsals to commence. In the meantime though, a number of preview events are taking place across Europe. Let's have a look at who is going to be appearing, when and where, over the next few weeks.

29th March: Riga, Latvia

For the first time in Riga, a Eurovision preview party will take place. The following countries from the 2014 contest will be appearing: Austria , Lithuania and Poland will perform their songs. As an opening act at the preview show will be the band PeR who represented Latvia at the Eurovision Song Contest last year.
The artists who are going to Eurovision preParty Riga 2014 will have an opportunity not only to sing in Riga, European Capital of Culture 2014, but to see Riga on the next day after the Concert, they will have a sightseeing tour of Riga for all the artists and journalists.
Eurovision preParty Riga 2014 concert will be streamed live on the internet on Latvian Public Media

5th April: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Eurovision In Concert is Europe's biggest preview party, and this year takes place for the sixth time in Amsterdam. Last year a record 25 countries were represented at the event, and this year already 20 countries have confirmed their appearance at the Melkweg venue in the city centre,
So far, the following countries from the 2014 contest wll be appearing: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Denmark, France, FYR Macedonia, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and United Kingdom.
Special guests will be Frizzle Sizzle who represented the Netherlands in 1986 with the song Alles Heeft Ritme and Emmelie de Forest who won the 2013 contest for Denmark with the song Only Teardrops.
The concert will be hosted by Sandra Reemer, (who represented the Netherlands in 1972, 1976 and 1979) and Cornald Maas.
Such is the popularity of the event that tickets are already sold out. Eurovision.tv will have a team there to cover the event.

13th April: London, United Kingdom

The London Preview Party is now in its seventh year, and this time is moving to a new, larger, venue at the Café De Paris in the heart of London's theatre district.
So far the following acts from the 2014 contest will be performing: Armenia, Austria, FYR Macedonia, Latvia, Malta, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Spain and Switzerland.
Special guests will be Anne Marie David who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973 for Luxembourg with the song Tu Te Reconnaitras, and was third in the 1979 competition for France, At the London event she will also perform Wonderful Dream the English version of her winning song for the British fans, as well as signing copies of the book "Songs For Europe - The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest - Volume Two - The 1970s". Also appearing is Scott Fitzgerald who represented the United Kingdom in 1988 with the song Go, coming a very close second by just one point behind Switzerland.
The party will be hosted by Nicki French (who represented the United Kingdom in 2000) and Paddy O'Connell.
Tickets are still available for the London Preview Party. Eurovision.tv will have a team there to cover the event.

Watch Anne Marie David

Did You Know?

• Preview videos of the entries first appeared in time for the 1971 edition of Europe's Favourite TV Show. Prior to this it was rare for viewers to see any entries outside their own country.
• Strict rules were enforced regarding the previews. For many years all participating countries were obliged to screen the previews on their national television channels. They weren't allowed to broadcast them in one programme, and had to be shown in at least two separate programmes.
• There were also restrictions on the earliest and latest dates they could be broadcast. In that first year of previews in 1971, the previews of Ireland and Malta were only shown in black and white, as colour television wasn't established in those countries yet. In fact the very first colour broadcast in Ireland was the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest, which was staged in Dublin.
• Nowadays broadcasters aren't obliged to broadcast the preview videos on their networks, but with the changing technology, fans have various ways of watching the preview videos, including watching them all here on Eurovision.tv!

Do You Know?

Do you know of any other preview parties taking place across Europe which feature artists from this year's contest appearing? Let us know at Eurovision.tv.

How do you like to watch the previews of this year's entries?

Looking back to just like it was in 1957

Corry Brokken winner of the 1957 contest.

 

Frankfurt-on-Main, Germany - While fans today have still about two months to wait for the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest - back in 1957 on Sunday the 3rd of March, tonight was the big night for audiences across western Europe to tune into their black and white television sets and watch the second ever edition of the contest. Incidentally the earliest it has taken place in the calendar year. Let's have a look back to see what they saw that evening.

Background

Just over nine months had elapsed since the inaugral edition of the contest had taken place in May, 1956; but in that time there were several changes made to the format of the programme.
The first was that each country would participate with just one song each; with Denmark, Austria and the United Kingdom joining the seven countries who had participated in the first event.
In the early years it was decided that each year a different broadcaster would take on the task of organising the contest, and it was the German broadcaster HR (Hessicher Rundfunk), who were selected to host it on behalf of ARD.
The other major change was the introduction of the scoreboard, so that viewers could follow the voting process. This had come about after the EBU had viewed a telerecording of the fifth heat of the Festival of British Popular Songs, that has been broadcast in the UK on the 27th August, 1956. Impressed by the format of contacting regional juries and showing their points on a scoreboard, the format was adapted for the Eurovision contest. Though in these early editions of the contest it was the song title that would appear on the board, rather than the name of the country.
The British heat had also included the London spokesperson delivering the results of their jury in vision, and with the exception of the 1971-1973 period when the juries were present in the host city, it took until 1994 before the jury spokespersons were seen on screen in the Eurovision Song Contest!

The Contest

The venue was the Großer Sendesaal des Hessichen Rundfunks in Frankfurt-on-Main that was used to stage the contest. There was an audience of just around 400 in the hall. The programme was introduced by Anaïd Iplicjian, who has the distinction of being the first female presenter to take on the role. The entire show lasted little more than an hour.

The Participants

1. Belgium: Straatdeunje sung by Bobbejann Schoepen
2. Luxembourg: Amours Mortes (Tante De Peine) sung by Danièle Dupré
3. United Kingdom: All sung by Patricia Bredin
4. Italy: Corde Della Mia Chitarra sung by Nunzio Gallo
5. Austria: Wohin Kleines Pony sung by Bob Martin
6. Netherlands: Net Als Toen sung by Corry Brokken (with violinist Sem Nijveen)
7. Germany: Telefon, Telefon sung by Margot Hielscher
8. France: La Belle Amour sung by Paule Desjardins
9. Denmark: Skibet Skal Sejle I Nat sung by Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler
10. Switzerland: L'enfant Que J'etais sung by Lys Assia

The Swiss entrant Lys Assia had won the 1956 contest with Refrain, In 2011 we took the opportunity to interview Lys Assia about those early contests.

 

The Voting

There were ten people on each national jury, who could each award one vote to his or her favourite song. They could not vote for their own country and no abstentions were allowed. You can see the breakdown of the voting in the History page for 1957 on our site. The countries voted in reverse order to that of performance order, ie starting with Switzerland. The Netherlands took the lead in the very first round and never looked seriously challenged for the title. They also managed to pick up votes from every country.

Did you know?

• The Italian entry was 5'09" in duration. This led to the introduction of the three minute maximum duration. (Although many songs over the years have actually gone over this limit, but none have ever been disqualified).
• Something else that went somewhat over the limit was the duration of the kiss at the end of the performance by the two Danish artists - Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler.
• Several of the artists returned to the contest. In 1958 Corry Brokken, Margot Hielscher and Lys Assia all came back for a further attempt, whilst Birthe Wilke once again made a bid for the title in 1959.
• Although the Dutch were the winners of the 1957 contest, they were not the automatic hosts of the 1958 contest. They only became the hosts when another broadcaster declined the opportunity to organise the 1958 event.
• The 1957 contest is the earliest edition that survives in full in the archives.
• That staple ingredient of the contest - a prop - made one of it's earliest appearances - with Margot Hielscher appropriately performing her song Telefon, Telefon with a telephone in her hands. [At least Bob Martin for Austria didn't appear with a pony on stage!]

About the winner

The winning song Net Als Toen, (or Just Like Then translated into English) was also recorded by Corry Brokken in French as Tout Comme Avant and in German as Damals War Alles So Schön.
Corry Brokken went onto release a number of records, and scored a big hit in 1960 with her version of Milord, reaching the top of the Dutch charts. In 1976, Brokken was the presenter of the Eurovision Song Contest, held in The Hague, thus becoming the first former artist and winner to take on the role,
Her musical career ended at this time when she decided to study law and become a judge. However, in 1996 she made a comeback releasing a mixture of old and new material. In 2000 she released a book entitled Wat mij betrefd which was a big success. Most recently she has appeared on various TV shows as a guest and released a second biography in 2009 entitled, Encore.

Which entry was your favourite from 1957?

Eurovision in Concert with the rhythm of Frizzle Sizzle

Frizzle Sizzle - Dutch entrants in the 1986 contest

 

Amsterdam, Netherlands - Dutch girl band Frizzle Sizzle will make a one-off comeback this year at Eurovision in Concert; the annual Eurovision promotional event which takes place this year on April 5th in Amsterdam. The four Dutch girls represented the Netherlands in the 1986 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing 13th with their entry Alles Heeft Ritme (Everything Has A Rhythm) . The band gained huge popularity in their home country at the time, but the girls decided to split up in 1989. Now, 28 years on from their contest appearance they will hit the stage as this year’s special guests.

Once again, the Dutch capital of Amsterdam will be the host city for Eurovision in Concert. Several 2014 Eurovision hopefuls will take the opportunity to get familiar with the Eurovision spirit, prior to the real thing in May. In a relatively short time, the event has become a landmark in many agendas; of both fans and artists. All previous editions were sell outs.
Last year, no less than 25 countries had their entrants perform at the concert, as well as special guest, 1991 winner, Carola Häggkvist. The artists get to meet their competitors, they can get used to giving interviews and most of all: they get to meet the most dedicated Eurovision fans from all over Europe.

First three acts confirmed

In the meantime, the first three acts have been announced by the organisation: Hersi Matmuja (Albania), Valentina Monetta (San Marino) and Conchita Wurst (Austria) have confirmed their participation. More acts will be announced in the upcoming weeks. This year’s hosts will be the three time Dutch Eurovision representative Sandra Reemer (1972, 1976 and 1979) and Cornald Maas, the Dutch commentator in the Eurovision Song Contest.
For more information and tickets: www.eurovisioninconcert.nl

Who do you want to see at Eurovision In Concert?